March Madness: The Final Four - 7 UConn And 8 Kentucky Advance To Championship

By Gregory John "G.J." Vitale on April 7, 2014

The Final Four is upon us, people. Sixty-eight teams entered the Madness and just four remain: Florida, Connecticut, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

Shabazz Napier on the free throw line (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

UF/UConn (6:09 PM EST) – The Florida Gators and Connecticut Huskies match-up was quite interesting. The last time the 36-2, No. 1 overall-ranked Gators lost was on December 2 against the Huskies. That is more than four months ago and was by just one point. Games from that far away might play only a trivial role in the attitudes of the players, but could be immensely important for gameplan.

The Gators, for example, got a taste of how clutch UConn’s Shabazz Napier really is at the end of that December game. He hit a jumper at the game’s final buzzer to win the game 65-64. He has led the Huskies all tournament long and was certainly a key player coming into the game against the Gators. I had the Gators winning it all in my bracket, so I’ll stick with them in this game.

The Gators got out to a quick 7-0 lead using their defense to create offensive opportunities right out of the box. UConn did not get discouraged, however, and they were back within one point with 5 minutes left in the first half. They pulled out to a 25-22 lead following a nice layup off the glass from Napier. The half ended rather anti-climatically as UConn simply imbounded the ball and held it for the last 2 seconds. By the end of the second half, the Huskies had beaten the Gators handedly.

DeAndre Daniels was the high-point-man of the game with 20. He was closely followed by the Gators’ Patric Young, who had 19. However, the story of the game was likely the Huskies’ hot shooting (55.8 percent from the field) and the Gators’ cold shooting (38.8 percent). It was quite the upset, seeing that few people even had UConn making it to the Final Four, let alone taking down the No. 1 overall seed. The Huskies were a No. 7 seed in their region, but led by Napier they were able to outplay the Gators in nearly every facet of the game.

Wisconsin/Kentucky (8:49 PM EST) – Funnily enough, the Gators only other loss of the regular season came almost a month prior to their December loss to the Huskies against the Wisconsin Badgers, the team playing as the favorite on the other side of the bracket. They faced the Kentucky Wildcats, a team that took down their region’s No. 1 seed Wichita State as well as powerhouses Louisville and Michigan.

It is always the same story with this Kentucky team, however: Which team is going to show up? The team that lost 61-60 to Florida on March 16, or the team that lost 84-65 to Florida on March 8? I like to think the Badgers’ consistency can pull them past the streaky Wildcats.

It didn’t happen that way, however, as seen above. Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison, in standard March Madness fashion, hit a three-pointer with five seconds left to put his team in front of the Badgers. Harrison had hit the three-pointer to send the Wildcats to the Final Four game. He drilled the three with just three seconds left to advance past the 2-seeded Michigan Wolverines. The man has a taste for the dramatic.

So, it would seem, that we will have a 7 seed and an 8 seed playing for college basketball glory. I want to go with UConn, but it looks to be a battle for the ages, especially if Napier and Harrison both put on their clutch shorts.

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